1784 John Webber Captain Cook Print
GUEST:
Well, this was at an auction here in town, and I paid $3,000 for this about four years ago.
APPRAISER:
It's one of the great prints, and certainly the best print of the death of Cook. James Cook, who was the discoverer of the Sandwich Islands, at least for the Europeans. This image was done by John Webber, who was an artist who actually went with Cook on his voyages. On his third voyage, at least, which was 1776 to 1780. And, of course, Cook was killed in Hawaii, and this is the scene of that. The event happened because of a debate over a stolen boat-- trying to get it back, things got out of hand, and there was a battle, and he was killed. When Webber came back, he himself published this print. This is his own separately issued print that he did to make his name, and it's a very, very rare print. I would say today in our shop, if we had this print, we'd probably have about $6,500 to $7,000 on it, because it's a very, very rare print.
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